What's a "morals charge"

[LtnJck]

I was watching an episode of Mama’s Family and Mama said “The man was run out of town on a morals charge.” What the heck is or was a morals charge. Was it an actual legal thing or more like a lynching type or mob justice type of thing?

[Gfactor]

It varied, to some extent. It referred to a group of crimes whose commission was supposed to suggest moral turpitude. The term still comes up in licensing statutes and some kinds of contracts. Here is a modern statutory definition:

(k) “Morals Charge” includes charges of prostitution, patronizing a prostitute, promoting prostitution, indecent exposure, lewd and lascivious behavior, sodomy, promoting sodomy for hire, patronizing a Person offering sodomy for hire, sexual battery, loitering for the purposes of solicitation, indecent liberties with a child, incest, adultery, promoting obscenity, promoting obscenity to minors, displaying material harmful to minors, and possession, sale or distribution of any illegal drug.

http://www.derbyinformer.com/legals.htm

[Billdo]

I would imagine it is any of a group of offenses which have a public morals element. It could have been public indecency, lewdness, prostitution, something pornography related, drugs, corrupting a minor, sexual assault, maybe gambling, or something like that.

Edit: Or what Gfactor said.